The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi folks

First posting from Bogside-on-Bure, have a 1958 E1A diesel Major s/n 1470163 which has been the family tractor since the early '60s, replacing a p/p E27N which had replaced a Standard - (still have one cast front and 2 rear steel spud wheels from this). Its about as original as can other than having been daubed with wrong paint and been used for ploughing cultivation, timber / stump clearance, haulage and sawing with a little road trailer work.

Its been out of use for a while and is gradually being put right, not having a lot of tlc for the last 20 yrs. So far fuel tank has been cleaned and sealed, painted so I guess technically restoration may have started although its intended use is to continue managing timber rather than for display. Rad hoses replaced and will start and run although cold start is needed both cold and when warmed up so obviously fuel or compression problem yet to resolve. A back tyre also needed, along with a non scalloped hub (we also had a Super which dad sold before he died, obviously went with the wrong wheel! having 2 scalloped and one JCB type wheel spare)

Got the V5 sorted before they closed the Norwich DVLA office but until I've done a bit more fieldwork testing what else might be wrong have not risked taken her out on the road. While not intending to rally, with Marsham & Skeyton fairly close I may have a run out later in the year.

Have been enjoying browsing past posts for others experiences and noted that there appears to be accurate build date info available somewhere which I have not as yet found - perhaps someone can either point me in the right direction for this, or if not public access, let me know when 1470163 was actually built, as I was also 'outshopped' in 1958, have been wondering if I or the Major is the older, its debatable which is in better condition

oehrick

Your build date is April 1958. Have a look on the Fordson Wiki on this site, you will need "fordsontractorpages" and "dotty" to get in. There is an article with pictures on identifying your Major. Check and post the date codes and we can confirm your month and day of production of all the parts within a few days.

Are you growing web feet down there near the Bure? We are pretty wet up here on the high ground.

Brian wrote:Your build date is April 1958. Have a look on the Fordson Wiki on this site, you will need "fordsontractorpages" and "dotty" to get in. There is an article with pictures on identifying your Major. Check and post the date codes and we can confirm your month and day of production of all the parts within a few days.

Are you growing web feet down there near the Bure? We are pretty wet up here on the high ground.

Thanks Brian,

I may go over tommorrow, (tractor lives elsewhere at present) in which case I'll liberate some further numbers, ATM there's a 1:30 chance we were outshopped on the same day as I was born in April '58

Thankfully while only a couple of hundred yards from the river they are at 45 degrees, so if we ever get water lapping at the door its bye bye Broadland and most of Norwich, as I pointed out to an insurance company who wanted to charge me extra !

oehrick

Hi Brian & all

The rain continues, but not as much as in the West Country, their and our local drainage boards scrapped the steam plants too soon

Here follows the best I've been able to decipher from the castings, however, on wiping decades of oily sawdust off the bulkhead I find the old girl has been lying about her age to the authorities, serial no ends 165 not 163 as advised from the tax docs.......

Above clutch i/p shaft N14A
behind dynamoo D14B
Under seat C21B
On front axle 2108 ?? really indistinct, other than Z10B I can't think what this might be but that Z doesn't fit the sequence, also has E27N, presumably the pattern number

Despite scraping about with a wire brush by torchlight I couldn't find the location of the rear axle / brake code, probably well preserved under the oil/dust, she's been rear end oil incontinent for donkeys years

It'd be interesting to know how long they seasoned their raw castings for and what the machining lead time was, probably not very much..........

Any closer lead to the build / despatch date much appreciated.

Welcome Aboard Matey. Your number difference is only 2 tractors apart. Must have been a paper work typo from way back. Dandy Dave!

Dandy Dave wrote:Welcome Aboard Matey. Your number difference is only 2 tractors apart. Must have been a paper work typo from way back. Dandy Dave!

Thanks for the welcome Dave, I've been browsing the forum for a while and since its an informative, friendly, delightfully troll free zone thought I'd try and sneak in !

I was about 6 or 7 when she arrived and while the DVLA shows first registration as 08/07/1958 I recall the tax disk and holder (and the old rubber bulb horn) being unscrewed from the E27N (along with the E1A pulley blanking plate going onto it, from whence the pulley had previously been removed) before it departed on the same lorry - without regret, push button start against raw hands and knackered knuckles, no contest - only one previous owner but if I knew who and where its forgotten now and I suspect the buff log book has long since gone.

Luckily I found said tax disc holder with some old discs still in it hung on a nail, so was able to retain the original registration (YPW 688) made up and fixed a couple of new plates as the originals had rusted away but some more TLC is needed before I dare take her out on the road.

Keep sniffin the Kero

oehrick wrote:Keep sniffin the Kero

LOL.. .. Over here we sip Moon Shine. Some is better than others, but after the second glass it really does not matter.

It is nice that you have those memories, and your family has kept the tractor all those years. Dandy Dave!

Dandy Dave wrote:

oehrick wrote:Keep sniffin the Kero

LOL.. .. Over here we sip Moon Shine. Some is better than others, but after the second glass it really does not matter.

To be drunk from a Mason Jar for authenticity DD ? From what I've heard, it varied between paint stripper and nectar, presumably like the new hi percentage alcohol petrol / gas we have in the UK will do serious damage to rubber & plastic seals, diaphragms etc if you try to run an engine on it

I make apple cider, ehich more often we use as vinegar, but have not tried concentrating it (tis against the law in the UK you know !)

My drink was always "Scrumpy" and cider made here in Norfolk by Gaymers of Attleborough. It was always a bit of a scramble when any work was to be done on their Dexta as there was as much cider as you dare drink, for free, in the canteen. One of our local cider makers got shut down by the Customs and Excise as he was producing apple whiskey and selling it for around £1.00 per bottle.

Your codes are as follows:
N14A = November 14th 1957
D14B = April 14th 1958
C21B = March 21st 1958

Z10B = For some reason the front axle code could be reversed, both my 1952 and 1960 are, so that would give you 1956 10th February.

So from this information I would think she is all original.

Thanks very much for your confirmation of the datings Brian, the front axle made no sense (but I'll have another look next time she is outside) and from the April 14th code I can confirm that the 'old' dear is therefore a few days younger than I, as I was outshopped on the 11th I guess age before beauty prevails !
I wonder where the pulley blanking plate ended up as wheels / filters / Rad hoses / fanbelt etc. apart that is the only missing original bit I know of.
Do you happen to know if NCC still hold records and could can trace the original registration ?

She is a bit of a pig to start needing the cold start in, even when warm, having been out of action for 10 years it may be compression but given the amount of fine rust I've evicted from tank and fuel lines etc the pump & injectors (which I'm pretty sure have never been off) are probably well overdue for a service, once started she has plenty of grunt and doesn't smoke over much. Don't know the hours run as the Bowden cable to the clock broke donkeys years back. (If it wasn't essential, didn't fall out of the sky for nowt, it didn't get replaced!)

Having had some proving runs on the cultivator I hope I have fixed the cooling system defects now and once I've made up a pipe to return some back end oil to the gearbox will have a little road run to see how the transmission is and hopefully gain enough confidence to risk driving her over to my home where I can spend a bit more time in fettling up the usual wear and tear.

My apple trees are not really good for cider and the scrumpy is pretty rough, I've a Randells root cutter that I have made some fingernail cutter plates up to shred the apple, I have also tried crushing them in my Riches and Watts cake breaker but that is not so effective and a pig to clean out afterwards! Homebrew steel framed press and a variety of hydraulic jacks produce the juice, then its in the lap of the gods if its cider or vinegar............ Ultimate aim is to make up a roller scratter to take the output of the Randells as it seems that crushing the pips is important to getting enough tannin into the juice, both of these to be run via a lineshaft from my Riches and Watts steam engine, with a smaller steam pump and water hydraulics powering the press, if I live long enough.......... Steam sterilising / pasteurising coil so I can save more as apple juice is high on the list but as for distillation, well if it was a closed system and fed alcohol directly into the Fairbanks carb then no on could expect duty to be paid on that

I once missed a trip round the old Gaymers plant, thought never mind theres bound to be another one soon, then in no time at all they had shut down. Seen the inside of numerous other local factories as Dad's day job was internal phones, clocking in / timeclocks & tannoys so holidays & clock changing days I used to tag along as unpaid labourer

What part of this fine County are you in ? I'm Wroxham way.

Thanks again for your help with the dating, must be a near full time job keeping a huge resource like this site running smoothly, so cheers from one who has been learning and enjoying from your and the other admin's efforts

Steam engine? Are you sure you have not got a Still? I am right in the middle near East Dereham.

Brian wrote:Steam engine? Are you sure you have not got a Still? I am right in the middle near East Dereham.

Ah, the mid Norfolk heights Brian, handy for Gressenhall then, last time I went over for an open day there was when they finally got their R & W engine into steam, I took mine over with a steam launch boiler so they could share a first public steaming, after a couple of other outing I decided that I'd had enough years of rallying so found an ex dry cleaners gas boiler, converted it to solid fuel and now have a shed as my playpen

Nope, not even a still for distilled water - I learned what damage rogue distilates like meths and fusel oils can do many years ago and have never thought the risk worth the bother of setting something up, I am keeping an eye on non aerobic digester technology as that would yield some heating gas if a household plant could be made but more and more I'm thinking of warm water capture from the house and a heat pump to recover it, not close enough to the river to sneak a pipe in unfortunately, too high above the water table for a geo. well and not enough garden for ground capture, praps part water capture and part digester...........

Spoke to my older brother earlier, who reminded me of a long forgotten incident from my childhood which might give folk a good laugh, the ancient, slight, fragile spinster who with an equally ancient manager ran the farm behind ours was an ace tractor driver and a real lovely old dear, I was often a favoured passenger on her Dexta as she mucked out, swept hay, ran the milk churns to the road and a variety of other tasks, all at high speed and with great precision (I subsequently realised that having a gate opener was probably part of the reason, she was about 80!) doubtless her cross to bear was the million and one questions I asked, any how one day I must have observed that or asked why her Fordson was much smaller than Dad's (I doubt I recognised the model names being different) her reply, dry old stick, was that because ours was kept dry in a shed and hers outside, it had shrunk in the rain, ah the innocence of youth with no knowledge of a sense of humour so dry it made kindling look soggy, and for some time thereafter I and my sister were kept quiet on car journeys spotting shed tractors and outdoor tractors

Nice! Ey me laddys un lassies, Glad me power major was not left out in the rain. she would be a we bit smaller today.... Dandy Dave!

I wonder how long you would need to leave it out to acheive a KFD Dave ??

Have had my Major out today for a little workout (first time since top rad hose replaced) H2O stayed where it should but as I've been re arranging long buried metal, mainly on tickover, followed by a little cultivating / harrowing, still need to get her hot enough to see if the temp gauge still works and how blue the smoke gets
Shifted an old concrete mixer, a pair of steel wheels (Major hub not Standard as I mentioned elsewhere) a couple of old style harrows and some timber in an icy wind.

Next on the hit list is to investigate the smoke release / blockage point betwixt Dynamo, Regulator & Battery, not absolutely essential as I do have the Broadland Donkey, this is a Suffolk Punch lawnmower engine coupled to an Alternator, charge where you like and on wheels so mobile......

The other 'must have' as I don't have a PTO tyre pump, I've an old propane cylinder with a PCL air QRC fitted instead of the original tap, charge up at compressor, it sits on an all terrain golfing trolley and has saved sooo much time on the the old handpump over the years.

oehrick wrote:I wonder how long you would need to leave it out to acheive a KFD Dave ??
.

Hi
I recon you'd have to hope for a year without a hose pipe ban wet it down at least twice every day for a month when you watered the lawn , then clamp it between 2 sheets of 1" thick plywood when it started to shrink, to get the wheel track narrow enough for a KFD .
Regards Robert

LOL... I see I'm not the only comic on here. Is it some of you have experience on what happens when they are left out in the rain? Or is this just a theory. The Fordson F's back here only rust down to become a home to birds, mice, squirrels, and other critters. Dandy Dave!

Yeah, can't be as easy as watering can it chaps, otherwise KFD's would be cheaper and the rumoured KFD Triple D more than just a story old ploughmen tell their kids to while away the long dark nights.

I did see in a magazine recently the mini Triple D some Welsh Roadless specialists had created from Dextas, which looked a treat.

oehrick wrote:Yeah, can't be as easy as watering can it chaps, otherwise KFD's would be cheaper and the rumoured KFD Triple D more than just a story old ploughmen tell their kids to while away the long dark nights.

I did see in a magazine recently the mini Triple D some Welsh Roadless specialists had created from Dextas, which looked a treat.

There has been pictures of a dexta 3D on one of our boards in the last year. Pat "Bear Creek Majors" is assembling parts to scratch build a Doe in the U.S.A I think it was the guy that built it posted it here in Pats discussion .
Those KFD's are rare only ever seen 3 or 4 in person in my 39 years and 363 days
Regards Robert

super6954 wrote: Those KFD's are rare only ever seen 3 or 4 in person in my 39 years and 363 days

Many happy returns Robert - life begins at 40 so praps you can look forward to seeing one soon